The shrill squeak of the door grates on his ears, aggravating the nervous energy running beneath his skin. He quickly casts his eyes around the dimly-lit restroom, glancing over the bathroom stalls and mirrored walls, as he turns to flick the faucet on. Bending over the sink, he cups his hands beneath the running water, letting them overflow a bit before splashing his face. Bent over, hands still gripping the counter's edge, he takes a deep breath and the vice on his chest slowly loosens.

The sound of spraying water fades away, and a muffled ring begins to clog his ears. Confused, he reaches up and rubs his right ear roughly. All sounds cease.

His heart beats rapidly in his chest as fear overtakes him.

The bang of the stall door bursting open has him spinning on his heel and reaching for his absent holster. At the pump of the shotgun pointed at his face, his hands fly up in surrender.

A hand grabs the collar of his shirt and lifts him off the floor, slamming him up against the mirror, glass shattering around him.

"White man's dog!"

He grasps desperately at the hand on his chest, trying to push it off.

The large fist collides with his jaw, snapping his head to the side. He can taste the coppery tang of blood pooling in his mouth as he looks at Quito's snarling face.

"I'm sorry," Antonio sobs as his nails dig into Quito's hand, "It's my job. It's just my job." (*)

He shifts his gaze to the figure standing behind Quito, pleading for help.

"I'm sorry! Sonny!"

"Dad, wake up!"

Lights shine brilliantly and fill his vision with white.

He jolted up with a gasp, his hand flying to his chest. A hard cough rattled his lungs as he looked up. Blinking teary eyes, he tried to focus on the figure standing at his door.

Eva

"Dad?" her voice trembled as she continued to stand stiffly at the door, hand over the light switch, "Dad, are you okay?"

"What happened? What's wrong?" He rasped, looking her over. His throat felt like sandpaper rubbing together.

"You were screaming," Eva's voice broke. She still didn't move.

He looked down and rubbed at his chest as he tried to figure out how to breathe.

"Dad." Eva's pleading voice broke his stupor.

"I'm fine," he whispered, then looked up to meet her gaze, stating in a stronger voice "I'm fine. I'm sorry I woke you up."

Eva took a hesitant step toward him, but he held out a hand, stopping her in her tracks.

"It was just a nightmare. I'm sorry," he let out a shaky breath, "Go back to bed."

She didn't move for a moment, but he looked away and rubbed at the phantom ache in his jaw. Eventually, he heard her leave and go back to her room.

His head fell forward into his hands as he tried to take deep breaths. He shivered as the sweat cooled on his skin.

That dream. It had felt so real.

It had been so long...

He let his lukewarm coffee wash through his mouth a bit before swallowing, as he stared at the file left open on the couch.

9:24pm, we arrived at the docks. Lehman was waiting for us.

The exchange is made.

"Antonio."

Hank was at the doorway of the break room. How long had he been standing there?

"Hey," Antonio cleared his throat and pushed away from the sink, his knees stiff and protesting.

Hank entered the breakroom and approached, "You alright?"

"Yeah," he motioned to the file, "Just going over everything."

Hank nodded and smiled, "Good. Stone called, wants you to check in with him before you testify tomorrow."

"Great, thanks." Antonio moved to the couch and began to gather everything up into the folder..

"You look a little tired. Everything okay?" Hank asked leaning against the fridge.

Antonio huffed a laugh and rubbed his eye, "Yeah. Couldn't sleep."

"Anything you wanna talk about?"

"Nah, I'm good," he replied, shaking his head.

Hank nodded and with a pat to Antonio's back, left the room.

"Thanks, Antonio," Stone said with smile, "Relax. It'll all be over soon."

Antonio snorted, "I'm not worried. I've done this hundreds of times."

Peter laughed as he turned back to the stone steps, "See you on the stand. And leave that smirk out here, yeah?"

The grin on his lips slipped a bit at the tease, familiar words echoing in his head from years ago.

That's just a coincidence, he thought as he remembered his dream from the other night.

The hair on the back of his neck rose and he found himself already scanning the faces around him.

A man in a long tan coat, walking further down the street, caught his eyes for some reason. He could only see the back of his head, but something was tugging him to the figure. His feet moved without his consent, but before he made it two steps, a car horn sounded behind him and pulled his attention to the yelling driver.

When he looked back to where the man had been, he didn't see him anywhere. Shaking out the strange shiver that ran down his neck, he took one last look around before heading back inside.

"Earth to Antonio."

He snapped himself from his thoughts and looked up to see Jay and Herrmann were looking at him, expectantly, "Hm?"

"Where'd you go, man?" Jay chuckled.

"Sorry," he cleared his throat, and laughed, "What were we talking about?"

"Luke taking up boxing."

"Right." But his attention was pulled away as his gaze landed on a man who was standing at a table across the room.

Sonny?

He was expecting to see his old friend's face, but when the man turned around, it was someone unfamiliar to him.

Why had he thought that?

Turning back to his friends, he placed money down on the counter, "Sorry, I'm gonna head out, I'm beat. I'll see you later."

This was getting ridiculous. But as he went to bed that night, he couldn't help but think these dreams and these strange feelings were trying to tell him something.

John wasn't hiding his anger at the decision he made. He could tell he thought he was playing this too closely, toeing the edge. But this was how he worked.

"You really think he's that good." Do you really think he could work me?

"Yeah."

"Better than me?"

"Yes."

"Better than you?"

"It'd be a hell of a fight." So what happens to me?

"You're doing this to me now? Now?" His pager went off, "That's Sonny."

"Jake."

"I might just surprise you." (**)

Notes:

(*) Quito Real was a crime boss whose organization Jake infiltrated to take down. Leading up to Real's trial, Jake had nightmares of his targets prompted by his guilt. This scene was an actual dream Jake had before a trial
(**) Jake was undercover with a group of bank robbers. The group made him prove his loyalty by killing a rat in the crew. Turns out the gun they gave him had blanks, but he still took the shot, risking jail time if he was wrong about the gun not being loaded and prompting a stern talking-to from his boss.